Vision Therapy: Not Just For Children

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Newsletters, Tips for Healthy Eyes

Vision therapy is a doctor-supervised program that helps people of all ages improve their visual-motor skills. Therapy helps your eyes and brain work together better, even if you have perfect vision. For years, people believed that some types of eye conditions, such as lazy eye or crossed eyes, could not be corrected after childhood, but, today, vision therapists and other eye care professionals know that's not true. Here’s how vision therapy can help adults!

Conditions Treated

Vision therapy is used to treat a variety of conditions, including:

Poor binocular vision. When your eyes do not work well together, problems with reading, depth perception and other problems can occur.

Convergence insufficiency. Convergence insufficiency makes it difficult to focus on close objects.

Amblyopia. Also known as lazy eye, amblyopia occurs due to lack of central vision in one eye, even though there is no problem with eye health.

Diplopia. Diplopia causes double vision.

Strabismus. If you have strabismus, your eyes may appear crossed, or one eye may wander or turn in.

Other conditions. Brain damage, strokes and injuries can affect your ability to use your eyes, even if your vision is not affected.

Vision Therapy Can Improve Everyday Performance

Your ancestors did not spend their days reading, working on the computer and checking their text messages. Because cave men used near and far vision about equally, they probably did not experience the problems that modern man does. Since hunting and gathering is no longer a viable job option for most individuals, many people spend hours intently focusing on computers and spreadsheets, often with uncomfortable results. The resulting fatigue, eye strain and eye irritation can affect your ability to function at work. The good news is that vision therapy can help!

Vision therapy is also helpful in improving sports performance, whether you are an aspiring professional athlete or a weekend tennis player. Therapy can improve eye-hand coordination, visual reaction time, focusing and eye tracking and teaming.

Symptoms That Can Indicate a Problem

Symptoms can vary based on your individual problem, but vision therapy may be able to help you if you have any of the following symptoms:

Trouble reading for long periods of time

Headaches

Eyestrain when reading or using a computer

Double vision

Attention span problems when you must use your near vision

Blurred vision

Omitting words when you read

Inability to retain what you have just read

Reversing letters or numbers

Words seeming to run together when you read

Irritated or red eyes

Trouble with vertigo or motion sickness

Losing your place when you read

Feeling tired when you read

Squinting or covering an eye to see better

Words jumping or floating on the page or screen

Difficulty with night driving or judging distances

Trouble using binoculars

How Can Vision Therapy Help?

Vision therapy has been called physical therapy for the eyes. It can help improve focusing, visual tracking, eye teaming and alignment, visual processing and eye movements. During therapy, you will train your brain, eyes, visual pathways and eye muscles to ensure that your eyes work together and focus properly. You will: learn how you can spend hours on the computer without developing eyestrain and headaches; learn techniques that will help you improve your sports performance; do a better job of judging distances when you drive; or finally overcome lazy eye. Therapy is tailored to your specific problem and is not a one-size-fits-all solution.